Wakelyns Squash Selection
Hodmedod's British Pulses & Grains
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| Marion Gaze has grown squashes and other vegetables in the alleys between the rows of trees at Wakelyns Agroforestry for over 20 years. Over the last year she's passed the horticultural batton to Chloe, Holly and Rachel who've established RealVeg, an incredible no-dig community supported agriculture scheme. |
Marion says this is her last year growing at Wakelyns, we're not so sure, but we're delighted to be able to offer this harvest of squashes - whether her last growing them at the farm or not!
Marion planted a range of winter squash varieties this year. We've got four types in the box; all have been carefully cured to mature and sweeten the flesh and ensure they store well.
Blue Ballet (x 1, min 800g) Grey-blue skin with intensely sweet orange flesh. Delicious sliced into wedges, roasted and added to risottos, stews, soups and casseroles. As with all the squashes in the box the skin is edible, don't bother trying to peel them, if you're making a puree or don't like the skin it's much easier to remove after cooking.
Red Kuri (x 1, min 800g A beautiful orange skinned squash with firm, sweet, chestnutty flesh. Roasts beautifully and makes excellent winter soups, or try pureeing the flesh with creme fraiche (or alternative), seasoning with salt and pepper and using as a pasta sauce, particularly good with our mezzi rigatoni.
Buttercup (x 1, min 800g) Dark green with pale stripes and dense orange flesh. This squash lends itself well as an alternative to mashed potato on top of winter pies. Cut the squash in half, remove the seeds, bake until tender then scoop the flesh out and use just as you would mashed potato. Also excellent raw; slice into very thin ribbons, marinate in Liberty Fields balsamic vinegar and serve as an appetiser or side salad.
Sweet Dumpling (x 2, min 400g each) Ridged cream and green striped skin with pale yellow flesh. Carefully cut off the top, scoop out the seeds, stuff as you prefer - though make sure that whatever you put in will cook at the same rate as the squash - and bake until tender.
We've suggested recipes ideas that work particularly well with each variety, but they're quite interchangeable. And don't throw away the seeds from your squashes, they can be roasted or toasted and used in bread, as sprinkles on salads or as a tasty snack.
When you get your box don't be tempted to refrigerate the squashes, they prefer being kept in a warmish (10 to 20C), well ventilated room. All the squash will store until Christmas, and probably into January (but do check for signs of rot the longer you have them).
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Wakelyns YQ & Edgar Sourdough Tin Loaf
£4.20
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Order bread to be baked on the day selected above* and dispatched on the same day for next-day delivery. Orders for Wednesday dispatch must be placed by 8am on the Monday. We'll send your full order on your chosen baking day. |
Wakelyns Bakery at Wakelyns Organic Agroforestry produces very small batches of wholegrain bread, just enough for us to offer a few of their sustaining loaves, which have a complex nutty flavour and keep beautifully, through our website.
Henrietta Inman, who founded this unique field to loaf bakery, describes their work and the bread they bake with organic flour milled from grain grown on the farm:
We bake, cook and create at Wakelyns Organic Agroforestry farm. Agroforestry, integrating alleys of trees between alleys of crops, is an incredibly diverse and therefore resilient and productive way of farming and food production. It is also very delicious and beautiful. We make use of the whole agroforestry system in our bakery kitchen, demonstrating the abundance of ingredients we have all around us.
Our wholegrain sourdough bread is made with the revolutionary YQ population wheat grown in the crop alleys and at Turners of Bytham in Lincolnshire, where Edgar wheat is also grown for the bread. At Wakelyns we save and sow the wheat seeds, harvest, mill and bake them here on the farm. We use timber from the tree alleys and solar panels outside the bakery to power our two wood-fired and electric ovens. Wholegrain flours contain all the goodness of flavour and nutrition from the whole grain of wheat. None of the grain goes to waste in the milling process. Sourdough, naturally leavened bread, is good for our guts and overall health. The fermentation process increases the nutrients available and creates very flavourful loaves, which we really hope you enjoy!
We love our YQ tin loaf toasted in the morning with local Fen Farm Dairy butter and jam made with fruits from the tree alleys; it’s great for sandwiches too and everything really. It keeps very well wrapped in the white paper it arrives in for at least 7 days. If it’s drying out, refresh it by dipping it in water and putting it back in the oven.
To find out more about us and what we do, please visit our website – www.wakelyns.co.uk/bakery
*Add the loaf to your basket and complete your order as usual. A small number loaves will be baked to order every Wednesday. Orders for Wednesday baking must be received by 8am on the Monday.
Complete Product Details
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Ingredients
Wheat Flour (100% organic wholegrain), Water, Salt
Allergy information
For allergens, including cereals containing gluten, see ingredients in bold.
Nuts, eggs and dairy products are also handled in the bakery. -
Suitable for vegetarians and vegans
Wakelyns Squash Box
Hodmedod's British Pulses & Grains
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Last year our squash boxes sold incredibly quickly, not surprising as we only had 100 available and Henrietta's recipe is fantastic. So we asked long-time...
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Wakelyns Agroforestry: Resilience through Diversity
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Pioneering Suffolk research farm Wakelyns was established in 1994 by our friend and mentor the late professor Martin Wolfe to test and develop agroforesty approaches that integrate annual crops (like lentils and cereals) with trees and other perennial plants.
Martin aimed to increase diversity in fields and between fields, an approach that increases overall yields and ensures the farm is better able to cope with climatic variability, pest and disease pressures and is less dependent on inputs, like fertiliser, from outside the farm.
The farm has four agroforestry silvo-arable systems; hazel coppice, willow coppice, a fruit and nut tree system and a mixed hardwood and fruit tree system. The trees are planted in rows or as production hedges running north/south with organic crops grown in rotation within the 10-12m wide alleys.
Published by the Organic Research Centre and Woodland Trust, this booklet offers a fascinating and inspiring insight into the development, practice and legacy of Wakelyns.
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Wakelyns Whole Olive Lentils, Organic
Hodmedod's British Pulses & Grains
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| Organic whole olive green lentils from Wakelyns Agroforestry with a superb peppery flavour. |
Pioneering Suffolk research farm Wakelyns was established in 1994 by our friend and mentor the late professor Martin Wolfe to test and develop agroforesty approaches that integrate annual crops (like lentils and cereals) with trees and other perennial plants.
Martin aimed to increase diversity in fields and between fields, an approach that increases overall yields and ensures the farm is better able to cope with climatic variability, pest and disease pressures and is less dependent on inputs, like fertiliser, from outside the farm. Read more about Wakelyns...
In the late summer of 2017 we harvested the first commercial crop of British-grown lentils at Wakelyns after several years of trials, an experimental mixture of varieties - a mottled green lentil (the same variety as is grown in Le Puy-en-Velay, in France) and a gun-metal grey lentil (also widely grown in France). This crop of Wakelyns lentils is an olive green variety we've found grows best in the British climate.
| We also have Olive Green Lentils from Tim Gawthroup in Hertfordshire. |
Complete Product Details
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Our Wakelyns Lentils have a superb peppery, nutty flavour and firm texture. They're great in soups, stews, curries and salad.
Cooking instructions
Rinse the lentils in a sieve, check for small stones, and place in a pan with plenty of fresh water water. Bring to the boil, simmer for 15 to 20 minutes until tender.
Don't over-cook - taste the lentils toward the end of the cooking process. To make a salad or a cold lentil dish drench the lentils in cold water immediately after cooking, this will stop them cooking further and ensure they stay nice and firm.
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Ingredients
Lentils
Allergy information
No Allergens
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Typical values Per 100g Energy 1395kJ (325kcal) Fat 1.5g of which saturates 0.2g Carbohydrate 47.6g of which sugars 2.9g Fibre 15.5g Protein 21.8g Salt 0.02g
Suitable for vegans and vegetarians